25 July, 2008

Velo Orange will be closed next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (July 30-August 1). We'll be moving into our new and bigger space. That means that orders that come in after Tuesday morning won't be shipped until the following week. If you need items quickly, please order soon. I'll probably not have time to answer e-mails that come in during this period.

Our new address will be: 1819 George Avenue, Annapolis MD, 21401.

Also, many of you have asked us to stock non-aero lever. We now have Dia Compe 204 brake levers with gum-color hoods. They even have a built in quick release. $24 a pair.

those are great levers, i put a set on my bleriot, and noticed a 20% increase in stopping power, as well as modulation, or "feel", relative to the aero shimano levers. the difference was not subtle, and much appreciated! and the price is RIGHT!

Hi Chris, not related to the levers but I noticed that you're now carrying Panaracer Paselas. Great tire for the price. I was wondering if you had the inclination to ask Panaracer/National Tire if they would consider making a Kevlar bead version of the regular Pasela (non-TG). You would get the lower rolling resistance of the regular Pasela and lighter weight. Maybe not as nice as the Grand Bois but cheaper and less fragile. Perhaps they could label it Velo Orange "Special Editon" or "Grand Cru". I think there would be a lot of interest.

chrisc is spot on with his/her Pasela suggestion! Fantastic as they are, I always thought Panaracer screwed it up. They should have offered a steel bead model with belted protection, and a non-belted folder that offers higher performance. Get them to correct this agregious error, and I'm sure you'd have a winner!

very good idea to stock these levers. It's pretty hard to find non-aero levers and I dislike truly aero levers. I'm french and as Sheldon wrote, I need my exposed cable housings in order to transport baguettes home from the boulangerie :-)

I recall reading somewhere on Sheldon Brown that non-aero levers have a slightly lower mechanical advantage than aero. That means slightly more cable pull. I think that's good when you want the pads to sit away from the rim to clear an untrue wheel (after spoke breakage).

Be careful when you talk about "modulation" because there are a lot of factors in brake setup, especially cantis, and you'll find plenty of references (Jobst Brandt) debunking these laymens terms.

@nordic_68 Yep, and when you have an old small size frame, aero are a pain in... you see what I mean :-)But anyway, you can bring your baguette with aero brake levers, that's it that's all :-D So as long as I can find a fine Boulangerie, I'll stick on my non-aero brake levers...

The levers are a fine idea, I think. As for non-TG Paselas, if I were not running TG Paselas, I'd likely never make it to work without a flat! Personally, I'd like to see a puncture resistant 650B tire as that's the only way I'd ever be able to use a 650B bike. A puncture-resistant Grand Bois would be absolutely great for those of us who live in cycling Hell.

Aesthetics aside, I prefer aero levers with single pivot brakes. My experience has been the opposite of Mr.Novack, though the levers are Campy C-Record (the either/or levers). I really think the modulation is more a factor of single vs double pivot, and modern cables, which help a lot. But, most of my bikes are old school, without the new fangled aero and indexing.

I'm guessing that the folks at Cane Creek guessed that there was a demand for non-aero brown replacement hoods. There are an awful lot of those levers out there with worn hoods. So they chose to have some made in the most popular pattern, Dia-Compe, which actually fits a lot of old levers too.

There are other companies that make similar hoods, and in a wide range of colors, and we thought about importing them. But Cane Creek had already done that so why not just stock theirs?

I'm looking for a handlebar for a Kogswell Porteur. I want to keep it somewhat faithful to the traditional Porteur bar, with a bit mor rise for comfort. I like the shape and rise of the Promenade603, but I want to use reverse pull levers. Which bars would come closest to the comfort of the 603s, but still have the porteur look? Something like the old Bellini touring bar. Montmartre? Left Bank? Nitti HB1013? I wish I could see these on a bike. Please make suggestions.

Count me in on the non-tg kevlar bead paselas. The pasela 700x35 is very close to a 700c version of the 650b Col De Vie if you remove the tg from the 700x35 (I like the pasela tread better than the col).

Wow, that gives me another idea...wouldn't be nice to get a kevlar bead vesion of the 650b Col De Vie too? That would be a graet tire.

I suppose these tweaks end up being costly because of the short runs--which takes away the need because if the paselas get expensive they begin to be less interesting. Oh well, one can dream.